Halloween, and why I love it

Halloween has always had a special place in my heart. At what other time of year can you let your imagination run wild? And the candy's not bad, either ;)

I think I can remember every one of my costumes. Some were handmade, or assembled from pieces bought at Value Village - which I still count as 'handmade', because they weren't packaged costumes. I've been a clown, Sailor Moon (made by Mom), Pebbles (from The Flintstones - also made by Mom), Baby Spice (of the Spice Girls, of course ;D), a ladybug, a witch, an angel, a kimono-clad Japanese lady (which was tricky to emulate, as I didn't have a proper kimono - I used a housecoat-type garment), and a kind of haphazard sorceress. The only packaged costumes were the ladybug, the angel and the witch - I'm not sure about the clown costume.

And then there are the experiences. Like when I went trick-or-treating with my brother, my sister, and one of my sister's friends, and our neighbour's son had scared us by hiding in a pile of leaves and jumping out. That same year, my brother decided he was too tired to do another street, so we went without him and gloated about our massive amount of candy.

Of course, I'm too old for trick-or-treating now. But I get to hand it out, which is fun because I get to see some cool costumes. I was thinking of dressing up as the Tenth Doctor (from Doctor Who) to hand out candy, but I don't think anyone in my neighbourhood would 'get' it.

Still, I can have fun by watching Halloween movies and handing out candy. I've got Red Riding Hood out of the library, so I might watch that. And maybe Hocus Pocus, if I can find the DVD - I own a copy, but it's hidden somewhere. I watched a bit of The Rocky Horror Picture Show last night, which was fun, as always.

Speaking of movies, I'm going to follow the trend set by my fellow bloggers and compile a list of my favourite Halloween movies (year made and rating are in the parentheses):

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, R) A cult classic. To explain the plot would not be doing it justice. Stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf, and Richard O'Brien (whom also wrote the original stage musical), among others.

Hocus Pocus (1993, PG): A fun movie about three witches who are resurrected after centuries. Stars Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966, family-friendly) I know it's not actually a movie, but it deserves to be mentioned. I love all the Charlie Brown TV specials, especially this one.

Ghostbusters (1984, PG-13) I couldn't find an MPAA rating for this, so I used my best judgement and put down PG-13 (IMDB just says TV-PG, so I'm not sure what that means). This movie is awesome, plain and simple. Stars Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.

There you have it. Have a happy Halloween! :D

Post-Thanksgiving,,, post.

That's right, I'm attempting to be witty today.

The holiday weekend went fairly well. Dinner at my grandparents' house was oddly civil (the roast beef was a bit dry, but my mom said that it had to do with the cut of beef my grandfather cooked). Sunday was nice. Thanksgiving Day was nice, too, because I got to eat turkey without the extended family squabbling over something stupid.

And my brother kindly gave me a new computer! Yup, I have a new rig now, and it's excellent. Now I have to get used to Windows 7, which is interesting - I've managed to freak myself out on more than one occasion. But at least I can now participate in National Novel Writing Month without worrying about my computer crashing.

I'm definitely knitting something for my brother for Christmas :) It's the least I can do. I'm thinking of knitting him a hat, because he lost his Noro hat that my mom made for him. I'm also thinking of making something for his girlfriend/fiancee, like convertible mittens - that might be a bit beyond my skill level, though. We'll see. If I can't manage convertible mitts, I can always make her some fingerless mitts.

I'm also thinking of making a scarf for my dad, since his cowl got eaten by moths. I think I'd make a scarf for him out of acrylic, though, so that he won't lose it to insects. That, and acrylic is machine-washable, so he wouldn't have to worry about washing it by hand.

Wow, I have itchy fingers. I should look at patterns...

Family dinners

So, I have to go to my grandparents' house for dinner. It shall be interesting. Certain Relatives ducked out, of course (funny how that keeps happening! /sarcasm). I'm not too enthusiastic about this dinner (which is a sort of pre-Thanksgiving dinner to work with people's schedules), but I'll bite my tongue.

I don't think I've ever liked holiday meals with my extended family. Dinners with my immediate family and their SOs are fine, but I've always hated the big family holiday dinners. Here are just a few reasons why...

1. I always got shunted to the 'children's table', even as a teenager. And eating at the 'children's table' with your cousins isn't fun when you don't like two of your cousins isn't much fun. I'm on better terms with them now, but I still am not crazy about taking supper with them.

2. If I bring a book, I'm deemed as 'being rude'. Even though I'm bored to death and my grandfather is more interested in watching hockey than being with his family.

3. This is sort of a companion to #1. For some reason, when we have turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas, my grandfather carves it all wrong. By the time it gets to the 'children's table' - or wherever I'm sitting, actually - the turkey is cold and has lost a lot of it's flavour. I don't think I really loved turkey until we started having holiday dinners at home, actually.

So you can see why I'm not totally pumped for tonight. Granted, we're having roast beef instead of turkey, but I've never liked having dinner with my grandparents regardless. Even now, there's a 'pecking order', and I'm at the bottom of it - and that sucks. A lot.

I've been contemplating ways to slightly freak out my grandfather, from whispering to myself like Brick from The Middle to talking like Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show. Of course, whenever I do something slightly eccentric (like when I bowed and said 'merry Christmas' in Japanese), my grandfather just kind of smiles at me as if I'm a little kid. Never mind that I'm old enough to vote! (Speaking of which, I have a semi-prepared argument in case somebody pulls the 'you're to young to talk about politics' scheme.)

Meh. I'll find a way.

I really should eat something, and clean up the house a bit.

Tune-ups

I'm on my computer today, because I needed to 'tune it up' to get it in fighting shape for NaNoWriMo - basically, I needed to do updates. It's slower than my dad's computer, but it still works fine. That makes me relieved, because the guy at the computer shop told me I'd only get six more months out of my computer when the power supply had to be fixed.

However, there are little things that I miss when using my computer. For instance, my keyboard is clunky and rather gross-looking (I think my brother had spilled Pepsi on it previously - I still need to find a way to clean it), and my mouse has no 'back' button. And you don't realize just how complacent you really are until you hit the 'magnifier glass' button expecting it to take you one page back.

As for knitting, I've been making another dishcloth. I'm in a real 'use up the yarn' mood, starting with my scraps of cotton. I might make myself a hat afterwards (because the only winter hats I have are my knitted hood and a bright orange Thinsulate toque), and I've been thinking of knitting Christmas gifts for people. The selfish side of me doesn't want to, but the generous side does. If I do make something like hats or scarves for people, I might buy new yarn, because my stash is kind of peculiar - I have either a lot of one colour, or not enough. If all else fails, I know my brother would be grateful if I gave him hand-knit dishcloths ;)

Itchy Fingers

So I have this itch to knit. A lot. I'm getting closer to finishing my Bernat Boa scarf, and when I'm done that I might start socks. I could use some more handknit socks, and I've never knit them before. I also have... I think four sock yarn colours to pick from. I need to stop impulse-buying at yarn sales ;P

I also discovered that I don't have slipper socks. For a while, I was wearing a pair that my mom made for my sister, which she later gave to me. They were a pair of 'boot socks'; knee-high slipper socks made out of Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick. I've since put holes in them with my strangely acidic feet :( I had a pair of pink, ankle-length slippers as well, but they got threadbare and pilled (I had to shave those things with a sweater comb on a weekly basis!). I have acrylic to use up, though, so I think I will make some indestructible slipper socks. And probably a pair of everyday socks, too.

I was scrolling through the program guide on our satellite TV receiver, and found - get this - the first episode of the Christopher Eccleston season of Doctor Who on Space (a Canadian sci-fi/fantasy channel, like Syfy in the US). I was quite excited about this, so I put it on, and holy crap did it bring back memories. I hadn't seen it since... when did it air?

(checks Wikipedia...) 2005. I haven't seen it since then. Holy moley. Six years. I feel old.

I looked ahead in the guide, and lo and behold, Space has the first 2000s season of Doctor Who on at 10 AM, Monday to Friday. So guess who PVR'd it? ;)

It's kind of funny, because the other day I said to my mom, "I'd kinda like to borrow the older box sets - the Tennant and Eccleston seasons - from the library and re-watch them all, to refresh my memory." Now I get to re-watch the Christopher Eccleston season all the way through again. I really wish he'd done another season, but he didn't want to, because of the fans. I can understand that, because he was the first Doctor in years, so folk must have gone crazy for him.

Anyway, that's all for now. I know I'd said about taking pictures of my scarf, but I haven't yet :p I'll take one when it's finished, though... and when I remember to charge my camera battery...

The Adventures of Reading and Stitches

Hullo :)

I thought I'd post again, so that I'm keeping this blog somewhat up-to-date. Not much has happened since the last post, but I felt like writing one anyway, so...

My stitches from my wisdom teeth surgery are dissolving. Yay! I think I took two loose stitches out of my mouth today. I'm semi-sure that I've lost more, because when I rinsed my mouth out a few days ago I saw something blue, kind of like dryer lint, in the sink when I spat (because you totally wanted to know that ;P). But the stitches that came loose today were white, so I'm wondering if they used two different colours of thread for stitching everything closed. All I know is that they're dissolving, and that's good. I'm also in a lot less pain, which is also good. The left side of my mouth is still a bit sore, but it was also the more swollen side, so it makes sense that it'll take longer to heal up. I've still got a bruise on my left cheek, but the swelling has gone down a lot.

I'm still in the first chapter of Tris's Book. I know, I read slow. But in my defense, the dogs kept bothering me when I was trying to read yesterday. Also, two of the manga books I reserved from the library are in - Fruits Basket vol. 11, and the first volume of Translucent, so I'm quite happy about that. I've also got a DVD (the British series Identity) and two non-fiction books (a grilled cheese cookbook, and a jewellery book) waiting for me to pick up. I have a book out that was due yesterday and two DVDs due today, so I'll have to try to get down to the library either today or tomorrow. I've also got another movie, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, in transit.

In other news, I woke up this morning to find Smiles, our Jack Russell Terrier, sleeping at the foot of my bed. That made me happy :)

Recovery time...

Sorry for the long break between posts. I've been busy recovering from my wisdom teeth surgery.

You might remember me mentioning that I was having my wisdom teeth pulled. Well, on Monday, it happened. Fortunately I was knocked out for the procedure, so i have no memory of it. I remember the events beforehand, but not the actual procedure. I'm glad, because when I'm awake for these kinds of things, I get all panicky.

I'm feeling a lot better than I did Monday afternoon. The swelling in my face has gone down a lot, I can open my mouth enough to chew soft foods, and I can talk somewhat normally. I'm still sore, but not as sore. And I reserved a bunch of manga from the library to keep me occupied while I heal up, and I started a simple garter stitch scarf out of Bernat Boa to keep me from getting too bored. I have called the scarf 'Goldfish scarf' on Ravelry, because I'm knitting it on a larger gauge than what the yarn label calls for, and it looks lacy and fish-scale-like. I also found out that, when I was swatching for this scarf, my 5.5mm circular needle is actually a 7mm (?!). I was surprised and kind of bummed out. But the needle was on sale, so it might've been a mistake in the packaging.

In other news, I had to take Hereafter back without finishing it. I'm disappointed, but I can always get it out of the library another time. I started reading a Tamora Pierce book, though - Tris's Book, the second in the Circle of Magic quartet. I didn't feel much like reading any of my other books, because they were all either very big, or urban fantasy books, or dystopians. And I didn't feel like reading dystopia or urban fantasy. I'm only a page and a bit into the book, because I was quite tired yesterday - when I was watching Lorna Doone, I'd lost the energy to knit. Can you believe that?! But anyway, back to the book. I've been meaning to read a Tamora Pierce book for a while, so it's kind of refreshing to read one of her books after so long - I think the last one I read all the way through was Emperor Mage, and that was at least a year ago, if not two.

I should probably get off the computer and eat soon :p I'll post pictures of the scarf when it's finished, I hope!